Christmas morning in Papua New Guinea... :)

 Christmas Morning! I had a great time stealing everyone's packages and wrapping them to put under our tree! And Julie even took one of our packages and wrapped everything in it for us! Packages and gifts for 6 people add up to a lot under such a small tree! Unfortunately, it was too warm for a fire in the woodstove this Christmas... but we still had a lovely fun and relaxing day!

 Jacob, awaiting the delicious German/American Christmas breakfast...

 European bread, salami, cheese, cucumbers, boiled eggs and nutella... very German. Cinnamon rolls and lemon pastries, very American. But I think fruit salad, yogurt, coffee and juice are normal breakfast foods in both countries. Especially Jacob's homemade juice from passion fruit, pineapple and bananas. So good!

Jacob and I, Marco, Jonny, Diemo and Julie enjoying a lovely Christmas breakfast at 10:00 am.

 After breakfast we listened to Jacob read the Christmas story in English and Marco read the Christmas story in German. Our God has done more for us then we can comprehend! It is a privilege to walk with Him each day!
 

 Diemo, our photographer! Nice job Diemo!

After we read the Christmas story, we opened our stockings.

 Marco and Jonny opening their stockings.

 Diemo looking at the picture he just took and Julie opening her stocking!

 Diemo, Marco and Jonny wondering if they remember how to tie a tie.

 They did... or perhaps they got help from Jacob. :)

 Diemo opening a package from home!

 Pidgin English Bibles for the guys... now they can definitely perfect their Pidgin English. :)

 Jacob gave me a Patriots shirt... fun finds at the Mission barrel, a place where everyone puts things they don't want and other people can take them. :)

 Marco got a package from home with lots of home baked German cookies!

 Julie's parents even sent a Christmas gift for her dog, Wyatt. :)

 Jacob also gave me a beautiful PNG pottery serving bowl!

 Diemo was very excited to get a PNG version of a rubix cube! We were excited to see that he was interested in figuring out Jacob's rubix cube just days before Christmas, little did he know that we got each guy their own, PNG magic cube. :)

 And it is snowing inside!

 Hanging out on Christmas!

 Jonny reading a letter from home.

Wow, what a mess! A very fun Christmas mess! I also had some fake snow which I threw on everyone, added to the fun and to the mess. :)

Christmas afternoon...

 A little relaxing time outside.

 Enjoying the beautiful view!

 A spider came to join our Christmas celebration too! He is helping us kill some bees around our house!

 The people call this a banana spider.

 Then we played a couple games of Croquet before our Christmas dinner.

 Our Christmas dinner was just as amazing as our Christmas breakfast... ham, cheesy mashed potatoes, green beans with almonds, brussel sprouts, rolls and apple pie for dessert! I was very excited to find a ham at the store for our special day, they are a rare find! Julie and I made this pie together... so yummy even though I used apple juice concentrate instead of sugar. :)

 And of course Christmas isn't Christmas without snow... so we made a bit to play with. :)

Christmas Cookies!

 I made some gingerbread men cookie dough and some sugar cookie dough for our big Christmas cookie party! Here the guys are hard at work... rolling and cutting and mixing up different colors of icing.

 Such concentration!

 Beautiful cookie, Julie!

 Jonny made this cookie especially for Jacob. Since he is their boss they made him as a boss... a list of things to do in one hand, pointing at the job ahead with the other hand and telling them that the job has to be done "nice and smooth". :)

 We made a plate for each of the staff families and singles on campus.... well, each of them that normally live on campus. We had fun singing Christmas carols and delivering cookies to one family. The rest of our staff is in the states or on break somewhere in PNG so we put the cookies in their freezers for later.

 Here is the plate of cookies that everyone made for us... even two chef ladies. :)

Jacob and I, Julie, Diemo, Marco and Jonny with our finished cookies!

Jacob's creation...

 Jacob enjoyed making a crib for our co-worker's baby in his spare time over the last few months! He just has a few finishing touches before he can move it into their home!

Our co-worker, Bobbi, and little Levi, born Oct 30th. Drew and Bobbi and family returned home to the the US to have the baby and will come back to PNG in Feb!